Galaxy of Heroes

The zodiac vector was not designed for an atmospheric descent. But Genie knew she had the skill to pilot it to the surface without destroying it.

She set the small vehicle on a steep trajectory. The vector rocketed downward, hurtling through the thickening atmosphere. It glowed white hot and shuddered violently in the turbulence.

The shuttle came into view below her. Flames blasted backward from its nose as it streaked across the sky.

She maneuvered the zodiac vector above and behind the shuttle until she could see Joe under the cockpit canopy. He was in the process of making a com transmission to the surface.

Genie intercepted the data flow emitted from the nose cone of the shuttle.

Just as she suspected, Joe was up to more than just a supply run. He was making a dispatch to the Portogallos Excelsior Hotel. He had just reserved a luxury suite on the top floor of the downtown skyscraper and was transferring a large payment for the hotel reservation.

A night at the Excelsior was extravagantly expensive. They did not have the funds for luxury hotels.

All they had was a handful of g-notes that Genie had stashed in a computer storehouse account that she had opened ages ago when she had last visited Portogallos with Capt. Jace Spade. Joe had a few g-notes back on Meglos that he had left in a Megalan computer depository. He had sent a transmission back to Meglos to transfer his funds to Genie’s account in Portogallos, and if all went right, the transfer should have completed before their arrival here.

In total, they only had a paltry amount to work with. How were they supposed to supply the cruiser for a voyage to the Calli Sector if Joe wasted what little currency they had?

Anger smoldered in Genie’s neural nets.

The shuttle zipped between the crimson thunderheads of cumulonimbus clouds and then disappeared into one of the massive clouds.

Genie plunged the zodiac vector into it, closing her angle of pursuit.

Electrical explosions thrashed her small craft as she tore through the dark center of the gigantic cloud.

She emerged, zooming out into a pink sky above a vast, violet ocean. She searched the scope for the shuttle.

The shuttle was flying right beside her, paralleling her smaller vehicle.

Grimes looked over through the shuttle canopy. A look of surprise crossed his face upon seeing Genie flying next to him.

“Joe,” Genie said into the com. “Return to the cruiser.”

Grimes pushed on the stick and the shuttle dived steeply. He leveled out, skimming the surface of the violet sea.

“I’m warning you, Joe.”

She chased after him, closing in on him. She zoomed in close to the cockpit in a vain attempt to force the larger shuttle upward from the ocean surface.

A mountainous green landmass came into view on the horizon. The glimmering slate towers of Portogallos became visible against a backdrop of green mountains.

“Do not proceed to Portogallos,” she ordered. “Joe, turn the shuttle back now.”

Grimes veered sharply and accelerated toward the extreme peaks of the coastal range. The shuttle skimmed low over the waves and then jetted up and over the high ridge of thickly foliated peaks.

Genie followed, but lost speed as she veered upward from the crashing waves, narrowly avoiding impact with steep, rocky cliffs.

She searched her scope but was unable to determine the location of the shuttle. She circled the green mountains scanning the valleys and ridges.

She sighted the shuttle parked on the tarmac of a busy spaceport that was situated on the flat expanse of a mountain plateau.

A stream of traffic arrived and departed from the spaceport’s many runways. The number of spacecraft arriving far outnumbered those leaving. Parked vehicles were lined up end to end in front of large hangars.

Genie contacted the ground control computer which directed her to land on runway number 12. She eased the zodiac vector down onto the tarmac beside Joe’s already parked shuttle.

The spaceport was dense with containers and machinery. Huge cranes and hulkish machines hauled cargo and equipment back and forth from spacecraft to planetary transport vehicles.

Genie climbed out of the zodiac vector and slung her gear onto her back. She walked across the crowded tarmac.

She recognized that much of the machinery here was of Tetraillani construction. She watched curiously through the clamor as a Gensecti cyborg strode across a runway. The cyborg was of an advanced design. Genie determined that it had been manufactured by the Tetraillani to perform spaceport managerial functions. The Tetraillani had further specialized their product.

Humans were everywhere, exiting shuttles and proceeding to hover transport platforms. She noticed the majority of the people here were Megalans, Paltrans and Heliac humans. Some of the humans in the mix appeared to be of the space drifter variety.

The humans walked across the tarmac in groups. They seemed to be in good spirits, talking and laughing and breathing in the warm, clean air of this planet.

Circular hover transports floated upward from platform stations set around the spaceport. The open-air hover transports zoomed away toward the mountains carrying small groups of humans.

Genie located Joe’s bootprints on her infrared scanner and followed the prints to one of the hover transport platforms. The prints stopped where Joe had stepped onto one the circular vehicles.

Genie stepped onto a hover transport, which quietly lifted up from the tarmac and then zoomed toward the green peaks.

Three other humans were on the transport with her. Two were space drifters who deeply breathed in the warm air. Their skin was pale and their bodies frail from a lifetime spent in the zero gravity of space.

Their happy expressions revealed how much they were enjoying the novelty of breathing non-synthetic air and being free from the confined spaces of spaceships and space stations.

The third human on the transport was a tall, slender Paltran whose limbs were encased in robotic prostheses. He cradled a long rifle in his arms. He looked at Genie without expression through his glowing green lenses.

After a swift ride through the mountains, the transport entered the city, zooming between the slate towers of Portogallos. The massive skyscrapers seemed to stretch upward into the stratosphere.

The transport settled onto a downtown platform and Genie stepped onto a crowded walkway. The foot traffic was heavy, but Joe’s distinct Craaldan bootprints were easy to track.